Sunday, October 10, 2010

"Fat" Joe accused of costings con job

The Federal Government says the Coalition did not tell the truth before the last election when it claimed to have had its costings audited.

The Opposition did not submit its costings to Treasury before the election, but said they had been audited by a big accountancy firm.

Fairfax newspapers quote letters between the Liberal Party and the accountants saying the work would not constitute an audit in accordance with Australian standards.

A spokesman for shadow treasurer Joe Hockey is quoted as saying the word "audit" was used in a way that would be understood in laymen's terms.

Accused of con job: Joe Hockey (left) with Andrew Robb

Finance Minister Penny Wong says that is not good enough.

"What these revelations show is that Mr Hockey and Mr Abbott and Mr Robb were simply not telling the truth to the Australian people before the least election," she said.

"They weren't telling the truth in terms of their costings and we know that that led to a $10.6 billion costings con job.
"And they weren't telling the truth about the checks that they'd done that they trumpeted about these costings."